“With Mark, it's not surprising,” UO running back Kenjon Barner said. “That's just who Mark is. Mark is the most caring, loving guy I've ever met. So for it to be Mark Asper in that situation, it's not surprising at all.”

The incident happened during the annual Beef Bowl, a long-standing Rose Bowl tradition at Lawry's The Prime Rib in Beverly Hills.

Asper was available for a short interview at the restaurant after the incident (you can watch video of the interview here). He was not one of the four UO players (plus offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich) made available during a press conference Thursday morning.

Asper, 26-year-old, 325-pound senior who is married with two young daughters, said he learned the Heimlich maneuver as an Eagle Scout when he was 12. He hadn't used the technique until Wednesday, when he saw Tom Diamond, a UO student, was struggling to perform the Heimlich on his father, Paul, who was choking on prime rib. Asper jumped in and calmly popped the food out.

"It's unbelievable and very believable at the same time," Helfrich said. "I'm surprised he wasn't doing the play-by-play in Spanish" — which Asper does during the "O Games" during fall camp — "and playing the piano with the other hand while rescuing the guy, because that's Mark. The guy's incredible. He's a really good football player, a great person. He's a Reinassance guy for sure."

A clip of Asper's interview at the restaurant was shown on "SportsCenter" Wednesday night, set up by ESPN anchor Neil Everett, an Oregon grad who emceed the Beef Bowl for the Ducks.

"I was talking to Kim Terrell, one of our trainers, and telling the story to her and her sort of take on it was, 'If you had told me what just happened, I would've guessed it was Mark, and I would've guessed how he had gone about it,'" junior offensive lineman Carson York said. "Mark basically stands up, walks over, does it (the Heimlich) and sits back down and starts eating again before anybody can even thank him, and does it calmly, like it's no big deal. … He's sort of like a little dad for everybody."